Whistle tweets

Category: Preseason

Carl Cheffers leads his crew in a Thursday night ESPN game. Three officials will audition for a potential future promotion to the referee position. (Originally, we had this listed for last week, but we are receiving further information that it will occur this week.) All times Eastern. Live games on NFL Network will be blacked…

The list of the NFL replacement officials for the final preseason week is available after the jump. NOTE: The officials that are listed were scheduled to work the games indicated. After reviewing the officials shown in the NFL gamebooks, we are finding that some of the assignments have been substituted.

The NFL assessed its first fine of the season for an on-field infraction against Eagles safety Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Last Thursday, Rodgers-Cromartie hit Steelers quarterback Byron Leftwich by lowering his helmet and leaping towards him. In the NFL rulebook, this is called launching, a 15-yard penalty that invariably leads to a fine by the NFL office.…

It still is summer, and we usually lay low here during the preseason. But, given the circumstances of the replacement NFL referees, we are going to sporadically add some thoughts here about the calls made by the officials through the night.

Crossing the proverbial picket line is familiar to some of this year’s replacement officials. That’s because the NFL has found somebody that they used to know. Eleven years ago, when the NFL Referees Association went on strike, the league hired replacement officials, who served in the preseason and Week 1 of the 2001 regular season.…